Compared to Setsuna, Inuarashi and Nekomamushi have an advantage in terms of physique. Male Minks are generally taller and stronger than female Minks.
Although Nekomamushi was beaten up one-sidedly yesterday, if he hadn’t been ruthlessly taught a lesson by a group of Miltank first, he wouldn’t have reached a point where he was completely defenseless. Now, he can still fight back against Setsuna’s attacks.
Haki is an invisible layer of armor. With the protection of Haki, she treated the opponent’s swung blade as a horizontal bar, flipping over to dodge Nekomamushi’s punch. Then, leveraging the momentum, she kicked towards Nekomamushi’s neck.
Despite Nekomamushi’s advantage in physique, Setsuna is more agile. During this encounter, Nekomamushi attempted to launch a new attack, causing Setsuna to abandon her own assault. However, Nekomamushi’s attack failed to hit Setsuna, and instead, it brought them closer in proximity.
The sword gives him a longer attacking range, but when the opponent gets too close to him, adjusting the speed of the sword is slower compared to the speed of throwing punches.
Nekomamushi’s attacks kept missing, while Setsuna’s strikes landed solidly on him. As Setsuna’s elbow struck his abdomen, Nekomamushi’s expression turned grim.
Although he appears bloated in size, he is not clumsy. Relatively speaking, he is still a very agile combatant, but compared to Setsuna, he falls short in terms of agility.
Unable to lay hands on his opponent all this time, Nekomamushi began to grow more and more impatient. After his attack missed again, Setsuna wrapped her legs around his neck.
She wanted to take advantage of this situation and finish off Nekomamushi, but she realized that she had made a mistake. Nekomamushi’s neck is too thick and short, so her attack has no effect. Instead, Nekomamushi grabbed her leg.
“I finally caught you. You’re really not easy to deal with,” he said in a strange tone. Setsuna hadn’t held back during her attack just now. If it weren’t for his naturally shorter neck, that strike would have been enough to take him down.
If he can handle his opponent on his own, Nekomamushi also doesn’t want Inuarashi to intervene. A two-on-one fight is ultimately not honorable, so he grabbed Setsuna’s leg and threw her into the air.
“Now you have nowhere to hide. Surrender!”
Sheathing his sword, he assumed the Iai stance. One cannot adjust their posture in mid-air, so when Setsuna lands, he plans to seize the opportunity to strike and incapacitate her with a single blow.
In his eyes, Setsuna had already lost, and he even felt a sense of pride.
However, at this time, Inuarashi issued a warning from the side.
“You dumb cat! Watch out above!”
Covering his forehead with one hand, Nekomamushi looked up, but it was already too late.
At this moment, Setsuna didn’t descend as he imagined. Instead, she remained floating in the air. After she stabilized herself, she launched another attack.
Just as she was about to kick Nekomamushi’s head, Inuarashi’s attack blocked her. If Inuarashi hadn’t intervened, the careless Nekomamushi might have been incapacitated.
“You couldn’t help but make a move after all.”
However, Inuarashi didn’t answer. Instead, he asked another question.
“Ability user? Have you eaten a Devil Fruit?!”
Minks themselves don’t have the ability to fly, so in Inuarashi’s view, it must be a power that only a Devil Fruit can provide.
“There are still many things that you don’t understand. This power I’ve attained is through my own hard work, it has nothing to do with Devil Fruits!”
“Magnet Rise” was one of the abilities bestowed upon her by Arceus. Although she couldn’t fly at super high speeds like Zeraora, it was still enough. Having the ability to fly meant her battles would become more three-dimensional.
“Hard word? We’ve been working hard too, Inuarashi, let this little girl see the fruits of our labor. Being able to fly is nothing special. Oden One-Sword Style: Feline Frenzy!”
“I’m sorry, Setsuna, but we can’t lose as we need those things after winning. Oden One-Sword Style: Canine Cleaver!”
A stab and a slash, the two attacks crossed towards Setsuna. However, Inuarashi and Nekomamushi hadn’t mastered techniques like Geppo, so they couldn’t leverage any force in the sky. Faced with Setsuna, who could freely float and fly, their attacks all missed.
But Setsuna also can’t just keep floating in the air either. She didn’t bring her bow and arrows, her preferred weapon. If she had brought them, Inuarashi and Nekomamushi would have become easy targets in this situation.
Continuing the stalemate wasn’t a solution, but when she lowered her altitude, the combined attack of Inuarashi and Nekomamushi became difficult for her to handle. They had lived together all these years and experienced countless battles on pirate ships, giving them far more combat experience than her.
“Setsuna, don’t be too arrogant. You’re not a match for the two of us. Surrender now.”
“Surrender? Do you know why I chose today for the fight?”
Minks are quite sensitive to dates. Only when they know the day of the full moon can they engage in certain dangerous operations. With Setsuna’s words, Inuarashi and Nekomamushi suddenly had a bad feeling.
“Wait! Are you crazy? Going out of control in Sulong form can be deadly!” Inuarashi angrily rebuked, not believing that Setsuna, who was two years younger than them, had already mastered this secret technique.
However, Setsuna had already raised her head, looking directly at the moon. The full moon reflected in her eyes, causing her pupils to shrink under its moonlight. Then, her body slightly swayed, and the static electricity generated by her fur began to crackle incessantly.
Her canines became sharper, and low growls emanated from her mouth. Her hair, previously simply tied up with a single headband, only reaching her shoulders, began to rapidly grow. The headband stretched open, and her waist-length hair started swaying with the sea breeze. The fur on her tail did the same, and the lengthened hair trailed on the beach.
“Awooo!”
A wolf howl echoed throughout the entire beach. Massive electric currents shot into the sky, and those living near the beach sensed a piercing white light.
Setsuna turned her neck, her crimson eyes locking onto Inuarashi and Nekomamushi.
“Come, let’s start the second round!”
“You… You’ve mastered Sulong?!”
“Is that not allowed? Get ready. This might be quite painful.”
Accompanied by immense electric currents, Setsuna’s figure shot up. The beach where she stood even melted under the scorching heat of lightning, transforming into irregular-shaped glass crystals.
Speed, strength and lightning—the enhancement Sulong brought to the Minks was truly all-encompassing.
Initially, Inuarashi and Nekomamushi still held some advantages, but now, their advantages were completely gone.
“Wolf Fang Flash!”
Inuarashi couldn’t even see Setsuna’s movements clearly. He merely sensed a tremendous force striking his chest, sending him flying into the sea.
“Come on, stupid cat! Today is the full moon, and we have plenty of time to have some fun.”
You can read ahead upto 40 chapters on my patreon and I’ve also activated (date to date) subscription model on my patreon.
Become a Patron!